Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I:The nature and aims of education -- Introduction: what is education? -- Turning the psyche / Plato -- Knowing how to rule and be ruled as justice demands / Plato -- An educated person can speak well and persuade / Socrates -- The exercise of reason / John Locke -- The education of nature / Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- The democratic conception of education / John Dewey -- Education as initiation / R.S. Peters -- Banking v. problem-solving models of education / Paulo Freire -- Liberal education and the relationship between education and work -- Liberal v. "mechanical" education / Aristotle -- Learning the value of work / Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- Education for labor and leisure / John Dewey -- Education and standards of living / Amartya Sen -- The liberal studies in a global world / Otfried Hffe -- Autonomy and exit rights -- The child's right to an open future / Joel Feinberg -- Justice, autonomy, and the good / Eamonn Callan -- "Mistresses of their own destiny ": group rights, gender, and realistic rights of exit / Susan Moller Okin -- Part II: Educational authority.